Even if you’re not a close follower of indie rock, you’re probably familiar with Sunflower Bean’s singer, Julia Cumming, a muse to Hedi Slimane who has been described as a “living, breathing ad for Saint Laurent.” A rare breed, she’s the band’s bass player—not usually a status position in a rock group. “Well, Paul McCartney played bass in the Beatles. So I’m following in good footsteps,” she says.

Cumming and her two band mates, Jacob Faber and Nick Kivlen, grew up in New York and met each other while playing in different bands and going to DIY shows in Brooklyn. “A lot of the venues we used to go to—our favorite was 285 Kent—were in Williamsburg, but they’re either closed now or moved deep into Queens,” says Cumming. “The stars kind of aligned. We met at a show—our bands both happened to be playing. Later, I heard they were looking for a bass player. And it was love at first practice.”

The single “Easier Said,” off their new album, Human Ceremony, is “kind of about our experience in the music scene, not being in school anymore,” Cumming goes on. “That kind of isolation of trying to follow your dreams while you start to get older. Having to keep it all together.”

The group quickly began to stand out from their peers. “There was a lot of no wave, post rock, pop punk in disguise,” says Faber. “We tried to bring it back to more of a ’60s and ’70s New York sound. Not dumb, but fun. Fun rock music without being stupid.”

It’s partly this more rock, “fun” vibe that makes the band’s live shows such hits. With their debut album out today, Sunflower Bean is on tour in Europe and will head back to New York on February 25 before traveling across the U.S. over the next few months. So what’s a rock star fashion muse like Julia Cumming planning to wear this spring—on tour and off?

“Music is really about being downright ugly sometimes. There’s a lot of things in music that aren’t really easy to look at it. That’s not always the case with fashion,” says Cumming. “I like it when fashion is scary or weird.”

Which is to say, she’ll be wearing a lot of black, except when she’s wearing floral prints. No makeup, except when she piles on the mascara. And, of course, scarves: “I love to wear silk scarves. My all-time favorite is a vintage Oscar de la Renta scarf that I got at a flea market on a whim a few years ago. For some reason, I never lose it, and it always makes me feel good.”